Basic Skills Advisory Committee Meeting West Los Angeles College AM -2 PM

Transcription

1 Basic Skills Advisory Committee Meeting West Los Angeles College AM -2 PM Present: Frank Gornick, Madelyn Arballo, Ted Younglove, Deborah Harrington, Robin Richards, Debra Sheldon (for Sonia-Ortiz-Mercado), Kathy Molloy, Kelly Fowler (via CCC Confer), Janet Fulks (via CCC Confer), Barry Russell, Barbara Illowsky Absent: Michelle Pilati, Beth Smith, John Stanskas, Elizabeth Fernandez, Julie Adams, Debra Jones Guests: Roza Ekimyan, Agnes Jose-Eguaras, Ann Foster 1. Welcome and Introductions West LA College President Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh welcomed the committee to the college. Thanks to Ann Foster for taking notes. 2. Summary of BSI Reports: Barbara summarized the 115 reports: a. Years 1-2: Colleges reported lots of attempts at a variety of strategies, minigrants, and conference attendance. b. Years 3 and beyond: Schools became more strategic about efforts. RP Group assisted as did 3CSN. Successful initiatives: i. Supplemental Instruction/In-Class Tutoring in pre-transfer level classes. ii. Proactive (formerly known as Intrusive ) Counseling Counselors visit basic skills classes in a systematic fashion to emphasize procedures, strategies, study skills that help students succeed. The group discussed the reports and basic skills education, in general. Some of the points included: The current conversation echoes conversations of years past, although we are educating a different population. We now have students coming to college who might not have gone to college years ago. Inter segmental conversations are becoming more purposeful and directed, particularly for some CCC/CSU relationships, which serves as a model to construct more CCC/High school relationships. Question: Is the BSI initiative at a point where funds can be targeted to support the successful initiatives mentioned above in Barbara s summary? Question: Can the planning process become more integrated based on findings from BSI reports? Questions about data that has been collected: i. What happens at a school when all funding goes to tutoring? ii. How can we help colleges evaluate their initiatives that they have already invested time/resources into over the last few years? Barbara s Response: o Results reflect both tutoring as well as course-specific supplemental instruction. o Institutional Researcher has to look at college data to determine which factors from various initiatives consistently contribute to student success. The in-depth research has to take place at the local level due to the variations across colleges.

2 Also important to address professional development, especially with non-credit. Faculty need time to understand non-credit and its role within the Basic Skills/Student Success efforts. Effective Practice at Antelope Valley Research office personnel served on college committees and had a strong voice in what was studied and how it was studied. 3. BSI Allocations for past and future years (see pages 3-4 of handout) Barbara reviewed past years allocations, explaining which years monies need to have been spent and which years still have outstanding monies. Some schools have held onto their monies while some have spent their monies in a more immediate fashion. Some schools may have held onto money thinking that the funding would go away. Basic Skills monies ideally should support an initiative that can become part of the institution s fiscal planning and responsibility. Discussion Topic: Should we alter the timeline for spending BSI allocation to a two-year period or keep it a three-year period? After a lengthy discussion of the pros and cons, the committee recommended that the Chancellor s Office start a two-year cycle for spending BSI funds with an appeal process for the third year of a cycle. The Chancellor s Office and professional development grantee (LACCD/3CSN) will work more intensely with those colleges that need additional support and guidance in planning and using their BSI funds. 3CSN is one form of help schools can use to support/inform decision making process. We need some mechanism to get campuses to serve students more immediately, more completely, more effectively. Discussion Topic: Should the report form include guidelines for spending BSI allocations? After another lengthy discussion of the pros and cons, the committee recommended that the new e-resource under development be actively shared with the system, but that we do not put in specific spending category requirements. Also, the funding categories will be updated to align more with SB 1456, the Student Success Act or 2012 (Student Success Task Force Recommendation 8.2: Student Success Initiative) and also the individual college s action plans and five-year goals to show a stronger connection between expenditures and the reasons for those expenditures. Discussion Topic: Suggestions for narrative questions on the 2013 reporting form (in no particular order). The Chancellor s Office will decide which of these questions to include for the 2013 report. How does your college work collectively to develop and implement your BSI plan? Who are the key players in the planning? What problems is your college still facing in the area of ESL/Basic Skills? What are the obstacles that you need assistance with from 3CSN and/or the Chancellor s Office? How is your BSI funding plan tied to your five-year goals? How does the funding help to reach your measurable outcomes? What is your action plan for research to evaluate your programs and if/how your BSI funds have helped? Basic Skills and English Language Proficiency is one of the core missions for colleges (The System Strategic Plan for the California Community

3 Colleges). Check your college s mission statement. Is Basic Skills and English Language Proficiency specifically mentioned in the mission statement? If not, include a statement from your college president as to why it is not included. How are your college s BSI and Student Success Task Force connected? Do they work together? Combine funding? Leadership? How is your college assessing how it uses its BSI funds and how these funds are tied to your college s educational master plan? How can your college institutionalize its BSI plan? Was your college s basic skills program more successful in than it was in ? How did you determine the answer? How did you measure the success? Discussion Topic: Pre-assessment pilots and review plans before placement test De Anza may pilot a program in which students take a pre-assessment, receive a focused review plan, and then take the actual placement test. LINKS VIII focused on assessment, so there is a strong connection between pilot and assessment. Central Valley (grant-funded) piloting a newly designed placement text. Used McCann and Associates to facilitate construction of this new, diagnostic. Beta testing beginning in an effort to begin using this assessment instrument in Fall Central Valley colleges all had to agree to accept each other s placement exams. Kim McDaniels at Chancellor s Office is a resource we can use; she is aware of the Long Beach work around assessment. She can join us in furthering the discussion around the assessment question. 4. e-resource A great big KUDOS and THANKS to Kathy Molloy who was the project director from the Academic Senate for the faculty piece (almost 100 pages) of the e- resource!!! This piece is ready for the next phase of editing and formatting. The faculty piece pulls together projects and programs that have data-supported increased success rates and have been scaled up and/or institutionalized. Barry summarized the Basic Skills Summit Meeting from Summer Discussions at the summit led to the development of the e-resource. The programs within e-resource had to be supported by data that showed an impact on a large number of students, not a one-time effort for 30 students. The idea was to provide a document that could guide colleges decision making in terms of BSI programs. Barbara outlined process of pulling document pieces together. She also explained format/layout of document. Funding came from a variety of sources. LearningWorks will fund the construction of an administrators guide that encompasses both student services and academic affairs. This will serve as a howto guide for administrators to use to implement specific initiatives. Robin described that Administrators Guide Outline grew out of Basic Skills Summit meeting. She provided context for the original Poppy Copy and how this document is somewhat similar to that document. This provides a step-bystep process for implementing initiatives from the administrators perspectives. Everything included in one document, merging student services and academic affairs. Question: How does one implement ideas in guide? Suggestions include: A road map to assist administrators in implementing suggestions

4 Descriptions that show how administrators have successfully implemented initiatives as examples of what and how to do something. A highlight that non-credit is part of both e-resources in the introduction or some other prominent section of the document. Might need to highlight non-credit elements for those newer to non-credit programs. A foundation for professional development for the various groups: administrators, non-credit professionals, etc. An introductory section that includes history/context/rationale/structure/purpose of each document, specifically the faculty resource. Currently document organized alphabetically. Is there a natural way of organizing the pieces within the faculty e- resource, so it is easier for faculty/administrators to locate information on an as needed basis? Possibly index/table of contents will achieve that. Funds are now available to address layout of document. Tie this e-resource to the new Scorecard and various benchmarks Robin suggested that we include nationally recognized projects in the e-resources; this could make the document more complete and potentially more purposeful for faculty and administrators. We are still trying to determine the type of introductory and concluding thought-type pieces. Consider including information from the last six years that shows that we have improved as a state that includes 112 schools. We need to allow colleges to set their own goals rather than rely upon state benchmarks. Benchmarks Discussion Ultimate goal is to increase success and where are we going Can guidelines be provided to colleges that suggest ideal benchmarks for that specific college? All of this work feeds directly into 3CSN s professional development networking and outreach. Originally, funding was going to be based on colleges performance, but this is not how the BSI was implemented. What is the life cycle of the non credit student? How does the benchmark for non-credit students? 5. RFA : ESL/Basic Skills Professional Development Grant awarded to LACCD 6. Old Business 7. New Business LINKS VIII Tentative Dates available on Monday, 3/18/13 BSILI at Lake Arrowhead on June 2-June 7

5 Basic Skills Advisory Committee Tuesday, March 12, :00am to 3:00pm West Los Angeles College, Culver City Multipurpose Room (SSB-414) CCCConfer: (888) Passcode: Agenda Members: Frank Gornick, Kelly Fowler, Robin Richards, Michelle Pilati, Beth Smith, John Stanskas, Kathy Molloy, Madelyn Arballo, Ted Younglove, Janet Fulks, Elizabeth Fernandez, Julie Adams, Deborah Harrington, Debra Jones, Debra Sheldon (for Sonia Ortiz-Mercado), Barry Russell, Barbara Illowsky 1. Welcome, introductions, housekeeping Presenter passcode for CCCConfer: Summary of BSI reports (see attachment) 3. BSI allocations for (see attachment) Discussion: Two-year spending option instead of current three-years Funding category guidelines Pilot: Pre-assessment test and review plan before placement test 4. e-resource: Faculty piece: Kathy Molloy (see attachment) Administrator piece: Robin Richards/Pam Deegan (see attachment) 5. RFA : ESL/Basic Skills Professional Development Grant 6. Old Business 7. New Business